A morning working on the Hayling view alarm system, fixing sticking doors and the fire and security alarm settings to avoid another false alarm when we are away as Di shops in Cambridge for holiday goodies. A debtor shoots the Bailiff in a Wolverhampton stand-off, US President’s right wing nomination for Supreme Court judge is rejected as Wall Street experiences its record one day fall on fears of interest rate rises and London follows to a lesser extent
Slept better and was up in good time for breakfast. Daniel and Debbie off to school, as I accompanied Daniella, waving at the rear bedroom window. Di went off to Cambridge today. Her parents were not there to meet her, having flown off to Menorca, but she shopped for things to keep the children amused on our forthcoming trip to Anaheim and then took Della on to Tumble Tots after. I stayed at home and tackled the alarm system. I had left it disabled, after the false alarm on our Norfolk holiday, but today I was up a ladder working out how to re-wire the alarm bell and self-activating alarm protection unit. Took some time to get back into it. Then investigated the alarm design to see how future problems could be avoided.
Firstly, only the external bell is disabled by the cut off, and the internal siren is still a neighbourhood nuisance. Then the fire alarm condition is exempt from this cut off anyway, as an emergency channel! (as is the PA circuit). After a long, but successful morning establishing all this, I made myself a late lunch of cheese salad & apple pie and ice cream to follow. This afternoon I adjusted two doors that had started sticking, then oiled all of the door catches and bolts in the house, which made quite a difference. With the alarm back in action, we need to be able to shut the doors effectively. Also fitted the repaired infrared external light back on the inner garage. Now, anyone coming in the back garden activates the light automatically again. Tea with the children, then, as Debbie went to her ballet, I supervised Daniel’s homework. Though he does the minimum necessary, I think that he made a reasonable attempt at quite a lot of work set tonight. Debbie only finished her prep, practice and journal at 10.00pm and so Daniel was reluctant to go to bed until after this. We all suffered the effects of this ‘anti-worming’ medicine today, that made us quite loose for the toilet, but no accidents. Di had her new tumble drier delivered last night and we connected it up for her. Debbie’s friend, Amy Law, is still quite ill, which is unusual for her. A bit late to bed after sorting out all my alarm papers tonight and making them into a neat folder. News at today’s Tory Party Conference of what they intend to do about the inner city problems, but it does not amount to much, apart from old ideas being dressed up. Another shooting incident, as a man, estranged from his wife and subject to a ‘Bailiff’ visit, produced a shotgun, killed the Bailiff and a young solicitor’s clerk, then shot himself. The solicitor escaped by presence of mind in this Wolverhampton incident, that started with an attempt to possess the man’s house. A predictable reaction from the Scottish Office to the recent prison trouble. Even though the prime cause is hopelessness and lack of parole opportunities, and the Scottish prison regime has a reputation for repression, new tougher policies of locking up ‘troublemakers’ for up to 23 hours a day are introduced. This is welcomed as a short term expedient by the prison officers themselves. Reagan suffered defeat at the hands of the Senate Judicial Committee, where his right-wing Supreme Court Judge nominee, Bork, is rejected. Meanwhile, Wall Street experiences a record one-day fall, as the American market worries about the market being overvalued and interest rates due to rise. The dollar loses 0.9c against the pound and the Wall Street Dow Jones loss was 91.55 points to 2548.63. London was also down to a lesser extent. It was showering late today, which is good for my lawn to find its final level. Pete worked on replanting the wallflowers into beds and only managed a little effort on the seed bed.